SHAWANO, WI- Tough decisions are going to need to be made with the Shawano School District, and the closing of a school building is one of the options.
In a letter that Shawano School District staff received from District Administration, it stated that the district is facing a deficit of over $2 million dollars for the 2022-2023 school year and they are exploring every option, including closing a school building.
“The public would not want us to throw money away just to keep a school open,” School Board member Jim Davel told TCH Daily News. “That would not be responsible, given what our current financial situation is.” He went on to say that they owe it to the tax payers to spend their money in a responsible way, and that does not always lead to easy decision making.
Davel said the issue is a declining school enrollment. He says the district is not in bad financial shape, but enrollment dollars are not coming in like they need to. He drew the analogy of a family with good credit, but low amounts of money in their bank account.
“You can have good credit, but you can be down in your checkbook register.” There are different pots of money and you cannot necessary move from one pot to another.”
He says this should not come as a surprise, as declining enrollment has been an issue for many years in Shawano.
“We are down nearly 170 students this year and that is $10,000 dollars per student and the numbers have been declining for years.” He says those dollars are too big to ignore. “It’s a problem and it is projected to continue being a problem as we look forward to the future years.”
In the letter that the District sent to staff members, it explained that the needs of district and facilities are part of the strategic plan that is being worked on. The letter asked staff for input through a survey that will be given at the end of the month. Part of the strategic plan is too set the district up to be successful decades down the road.
“It is trying to be as transparent as possible and there are still a lot of questions and discussions to come,” Davel said. He says more parents are using options of parochial schools, homeschool, open enrollment and vouchers.
The letter did not talk about which building they would look into closing if it got to that point.
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